Carl's at Mahoney, the restaurant in Eugene T. Mahoney State Park's Peter Kiewit Lodge, will close on Aug. 7, continuing a pattern of turnover in the dining space that has outlasted three different operators and every payment structure Nebraska Game and Parks has tried.
Owners Carl and Diane Kucera opened the restaurant in March 2024, according to Sandhills Express reporting. A little over two years later, they announced the closure on Facebook, in a letter dated July 5, citing budget cuts, ongoing construction in the area and other financial challenges.
Diane Kucera declined an interview request. "At this time we are not able to comment," she wrote in an email. "Best of luck with your article."
A contract built to shrink
Nebraska Public Media reviewed the contract file for Carl's at Mahoney and its three subsequent amendments through the state's online contract database.
When Carl's, operating as Country Catering Inc., signed its original three-year agreement in August 2023, the state agreed to pay the restaurant on a declining schedule. In the first year, NGPC would pay Carl's $176,376, dropping to $100,000 the second year and $60,000 the third, a total of $336,376. A profit-loss projection within the documents estimated that the business would lose over $176,000 in the first year.
The original structure assumed the business would become more self-sufficient each year, with hopes of turning a profit by year four. A note attached to the pricing schedule, repeated in each amendment, read: "It is our sincere hope that we can show a profit by year 4."
A first amendment, signed in May 2024, required Carl's to pay the state 3.5% of any revenue from catering events unrelated to Game and Parks business, to offset the cost of state equipment used for those events.
In May 2025, the state amended the contract a second time, increasing payments rather than continuing the decline. The second year rose to $138,188 and third year rose to $176,376, matching the first year. The change added $154,564 to the contract's total value, bringing it to $490,940.
A third amendment in September 2025 extended the contract two more years, through August 2028. The restaurant is closing roughly two years before that amended term ends.
Not connected to Pillen's budget memo, agency says
Nebraska Game and Parks Parks Division Administrator Jeff Fields said the closure is not related to Gov. Jim Pillen's July 8 memo, which directed state agencies to cut budgets by 5% and separately required monthly cash-flow projections.
"The owners of Carl's at Mahoney State Park decided not to continue with the current contract due to personal and financial reasons," Fields said in a statement.
Fields said there were numerous reasons behind the closures of the restaurants using the space over the years.
"Many factors in recent years have [contributed] to the change in restaurant operators including competition, struggles to find and maintain staff, and narrow profit margins due to increased expenses/personnel costs," Fields wrote.
In the short term, Fields said, the lodge will offer coffee and grab-and-go food, along with existing concessions at the park's marina and activity center. He said a long-term plan for a new operator will be developed this summer and fall for the 2027 season.
In a follow-up email, Nebraska Public Media asked Game and Parks additional questions about the size of the 2025 payment increase, whether the state considers the contract to have delivered adequate value, whether the pattern of turnover has prompted an internal review, and how future contracts might be structured given budget cuts. Deputy Director Jim Swenson declined to answer them.
"Considering that the contract with Carl's is still in place, recognizing that they are still in operation and serving the public, and with respect and courtesy to the owners we decline to respond to your additional questions," Swenson wrote, adding that Fields’ answers provided on July 10 "define[s] the challenges that exist in the food service industry, which have contributed to this and prior situations."
A six-year pattern
Carl's is the third restaurant to leave the Peter Kiewit Lodge's dining space since 2020. Game and Parks has tried more than one financial approach with the three operators, none of which has contributed to long-term success.
Caddy's Parkside Grill, operated by Scratch Hospitality Management Inc. and owned by Jayme and Brian Cadwallader, signed a contract with the state in January 2018 and opened March 1, of that year. The state agreed to pay Caddy's up to $200,000 a year — $175,000 as a base fee plus up to $25,000 for marketing — for a total contract value of up to $600,000 over three years. Caddy's closed in November 2020. Swenson, then acting as the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission Parks Division administrator, attributed the closure at the time to "diminished demand for sit-in dining options in conjunction with the present and growing COVID pandemic trends."
The View at Mahoney took over the space next. Operated by Amberly Rist and Jeannette Anndannandus, the restaurant opened April 1, 2021. The state agreed to pay up to $200,000 annually across two contracts — the original, issued in March 2021 to Rist and Anndannandus individually, running through March 2022, and a second, issued that October to "The View at Mahoney LLC," running through Oct. 31, 2022.
In a Facebook message, Anndannandus confirmed to Nebraska Public Media the shift to an LLC structure was made for personal reasons unrelated to the restaurant's operations, and that the restaurant's last full operating month was September, ending around the time its second contract was ending.
Anndannandus previously replied to Carl’s at Mahoney’s closure announcement post offering both condolences for the restaurant and criticism for the park.
"No restaurant will ever make it out there speaking from experience. The park commission makes it sound great until it's not. The politics of the park will always hinder anyone in that space. Very unfortunate that another company is going through the process of closing yet again,” Anndannandus wrote.
The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission ran the restaurant itself for nearly two decades, from the park's 1991 opening until privatizing the space in 2010, according to the Wahoo Newspaper. Carl’s became the sixth restaurant to open and later close its doors at Mahoney State Park.